Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Performs Its First Pediatric Domino Transplant

According to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the pediatric hospital has performed its first ever domino liver transplant involving a child.

A domino transplant is basically an organ that has been taken from a deceased donor and it is then transplanted into the first recipient. The person that received the transplanted organs are then transplanted into a second recipient. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there has only been 67 domino liver transplants in the United States to date.

On June 23rd and June 24th, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, successfully transplanted a liver into nine year-old Johnathan Devantier's body. Devantier who was born with a very rare disease, MSUD, was diagnosed and has been fighting to live since he was seven days old. Once Devantier received the new liver, his liver was then transplanted into the body of Ali Al-Garni who had been suffering from familial cholestasis. Since Devantier's disease does not originate in the liver, a MSUD patient can make enough enzymes in the liver to overcome the shortage elsewhere inside the body. That in turn allows the MSUD patients organ to be transplanted into another donor that is in dire need.

The lead surgeon and the Director of Pediatric Transplantation at Children's Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation, Dr. George V. Mazariegos, MD, who performed the domino transplant stated that "domino transplants are so rare because there are very few conditions for which you can cure one patient with a transplant and then transplant his of her organ into someone else without passing on the disease." he also went on to add " Children's hospital is uniquely poised to begin offering domino transplants as an option to more and more families."